favorite athletes

Just felt like starting a converstion. Who are your favorite athletes of all time.

Some of mine are,

Brian McBride-great work ethic, heart, turned me on to soccer
Arthur Ashe-great tennis player but had a life outside of sports
Steve Garvey-go ahead laugh, but I needed a hero as a kid
John McEnroe-what a competitor & now that he's a commentator I realize that he's not the ass I thought he was

Jackie Robinson-great player, brave, couragous, how many could do what he did

Larry Bird-I dont know how he did what he did

The rest of you help me out because I'm sure there are many more.

 

Clevelandmo;

Solid list; Echo your thoughts on McGod. There was a bumper sticker out here (should go under the bumper sticker thread) years ago...Honk if your carrying Steve Garvey's baby.

Jack Nicklaus - Tiger still has a lot of work to do to be considered the greatest. Can't believe I forgot to put Jack's '86 Masters win in the greatest sports moments thread.
Joe Montana - not a 49er fan, but I never saw anyone do it better.
Michael Jordan - ditto
Hank Aaron - has anyone showed more dignity than the Hammer during his HR chase?

 

Great choice, the sad thing is there is an entire generation of kids out there who do not know who she was.

When Bonds started chasing Hammerin' Hank in earnest a few years ago, what I decided to do was reread his book, I had a Hammer. It was cowritten by a man named Lonnie Wheeler, and it came out about 1993 or so, I'm sure it's available on Amazon, or probably in any local bookstore. Now, my family has all the love for Barry Bonds that he deserves (NONE). I read Aaron's book once when it first came out, but over time I had forgotten a lot about it, and I decided to read it again rather than read what ESPN had to say about Bonds. I am very glad I did. What Hank went through when he was coming up through the minors in the Old South is amazing. He talked about how he was treated when he was in the minors in Bradenton, Florida, and I just coundn't believe what he endured; if I didn't know what he was saying was what indeed happened, I couldn't have believed it, which sounds kind of silly, but that's the best way I can articulate it. It really sound like passages from Uncle Tom's Cabin 120 years later. He still holds the legit HR record, as far as my family is concerned, and Barry Bonds isn't in the same galaxy as Hank for how he handled his achievements.

My favorite athletes of my day are ones who achieved as much outside their chosen sport as inside; in no particular order, Lance Armstrong and Muhammed Ali. I don't want to put Nike's pitchmen on that list, they may be the richest of my lifetime, but they are not the ones I necessarily want my son to emulate first and foremost. Maybe second and third-most.

One neat fact about Ali -- We share the same birthday, 17 January. He is exactly 27 years older than I am, and every year on my birthday I light a candle for The Greatest Of All Time.

As far as soccer, if my son so chooses to take this game seriously, I will show him tapes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, and have him see how professional they are, how dedicated to training they are, and how well they use their gifts and work at making them better, and tell him that all he has to do is work as hard as they have if he wants to be successful. I also greatly admire Alex Ferguson for many reasons, but just one is that he has managed to lead a team as large as Man U for 21 years and not get fired, or burned out, like an irascible Joe Torre.

 

Yes Hank Aaron how could I forget.

Hatterdon, while youre on the theme of women what about Wilma Rudolph; she had polio as a child and went on to win three golds. Also, a new personal favorite - Marion Jones. Maybe I've been duped, but her apology for doping showed show much humility and character. And of course she was a great athlete even without the drugs.

 

My favorite athlete of all time is oddly Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf aka Chris Jackson. As a 6th grader during his meteoric rise as a freshman at LSU alongside Shaquille O'Neill I enjoyed watching him play. His quickness, his explosive scoring and his demeanor.

Most people probably remember him for being the guy who would not stand for the national anthem or as the person who was somewhat sympathetic to Osama Bin Laden after 9/11.

Regardless, he was MY GUY growing up and while his NBA career was not as good as I was hoping, he still did have some shining moments and I would still love to meet the guy someday.

 

So soon forgotten! That's sad. And where's Arthur Ashe in this list?!!!!

But go allaway back to Babe Zaharias...

 

Hank Aaron.

Brave, in so many ways.

 

Arthur Ashe is on my original list.

 

I guess there is some confusion on my part with regards to this thread. My idea of a persons favorite athlete is the one in which you have seen perform on tv or live many, many times and grew to enjoy the person perform for whatever reason.

I mean historically I could put Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson and others, but I never saw them perform. Perhaps some on here did, but unless you have seen someone play his/her respective sport, I am not sure how you can put them at the top of your list.

 

I never saw Babe Ruth play... soo.. guess I do have to remove Zaharias.

 

It's your favs for whatever reason. I didnt see Jackie Robinson perform but I read his biography and have seen many documentary bits on him.

 

Beckenbauer
Zidane
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
Dan Marino
Marcus Allen
Emmitt Smith
Nolan Ryan

This short list is not all inclusinve, but these were some of the athletes that I made an effort to either watch on TV as much as I could, or see in person if the opportunity was available.

As far as teams go, the US MNT is my favorite at any given time - there are some obvious call up exceptions, but I still watched intently.

 

IN PERSON!! ?

The Big Red Machine.

I'm not counting McB and Schelotto or Harkes... and I havent seen Beckham yet either.

 

hmmm

Brett Favre
Steffie Graf
Larry Bird
Jim Brown...I've just seen film of him...never saw him live as I'm too young
Steve Young
Brian McBride
and this guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0zGrtOKtZc
"Eric The Eel" i should add that as one of my memorable sports moments.

 

Darren Sproles
Fabrice Santoro
Kurt Warner (Go AZ Cards)
Luis Boa Morte

 

Seems like me and rcl19 share the same birthday...welcome to the Capricorn club!

Back on topic, some of my favorite athletes of all time are:

Patrick Ewing - Legend New York Knick

Adam Graves - First 50 single season goal scorer for the New York Rangers in decades

Art Monk - Wide Receiver for the Redskins. He set the 'catches per season' bar for all future receivers

Art Monk, Ricky Sanders and Gary Clark - Receivers of the Redskins known as the 'Posse' and ripped up the NFL in the mid/late 90's

Gary Carter - 80's Mets Catcher

Don Mattingly - NY Yankees First Baseman

Mark Messier - NY Rangers Legend and guaranteed us the Stanley Cup

Brian Leetch - Best offensive defenseman ever

John Vanbiesbrouck - The first player I ever was gutted over after they left a team I was a fan of. A NY Rangers legend in my mind.

Charles Oakley - Forward for the NY Knicks and represented a real work horse.

Tab Ramos - My first and really only favorite USMNT member

Most recently:

Louis Boa Morte - when at his best, no winger could touch him and the first Fulham player who became my fave.

I answered it with Tom's post in mind...these are guys I saw growing up and will forever be my sporting heros.

 

Tiger Woods, I can't help but love him, do wish he'd show up in the %*!@ Ryder Cup though.

Lance Armstrong, when I'm an old fart all look back and remember my childhood summers golfing, eating Hot Pockets, watching Wimbeldon, American Gladiators reruns, and Lance Armstrong dominate the Tour de France.

Was a big Juan Pablo Montoya fan in his f1 days, he never lived up to his potential and the bastard broke my heart when he took the easy way out to NASCAR.

Also a guy named Todd George who was a hard nosed defenseman for Minnesota State Mankato(hockey). My dad took me to those games for years and he was my favorite.

With Fulham its to hard to pick a favorite. I'll say I miss Steeeed desperately.